Look at pollution then and now

By The Associated Press

April 21, 2012 | 6:41 p.m. CDT

In 1973, the then new Environment Protection Agency started the Documerica program to document pollution across the country. The program was eventually cut in 1977 because of budget problems, so The Associated Press went back to the sites and took more recent photos.

LEFT: This August 1973 photo released by the U.S. National Archives shows the Donald Cook Nuclear Power Plant still under construction on Lake Michigan at Bridgman, Mich. The photo was taken for the "Documerica" program, 1972-1977, instituted by the then new Environmental Protection Agency to document subjects of environmental concern.

RIGHT: This photo taken Friday shows the Cook Nuclear Plant in Bridgman, Mich., along Lake Michigan's eastern shoreline. The photo was taken from the same vantage point of an historical image taken for the "Documerica" program.
| The Associated Press

LEFT: This May 1973 photo released by the U.S. National Archives shows ongoing urban development and construction on lower Manhattan's west side, just north of the World Trade Center in New York. The image was taken for the then new Environmental Protection Agency's "Documerica" program, 1972-1977, to document subjects of environmental concern.

RIGHT: This photo taken April 10, shows urban development in lower Mahanattan with the World Trade Center, right, in New York. It was photographed near the location of an historic 1973 photo, taken for the "Documerica" program.
| The Associated Press

LEFT: This April 1973 photo released by the U.S. National Archives shows the Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority tracks, crossing across Neptune Road in East Boston, Mass., near Logan Airport. The image was taken for the then new Environmental Protection Agency's "Documerica" program, 1972-1977, to document subjects of environmental concern.

RIGHT: This photo taken April 14, shows a Blue Line subway train passing Neptune Road in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston. The same view was photographed for the "Documerica" program.
| The Associated Press